Deeply entrenched fears and looming insecurities are terrifying in their very own proper, however they’re much more sinister once they’re used towards you. When confronting private obstacles in a frightening pitch-black dreamscape akin to Stranger Issues‘ the Upside Down or Insidious‘ the Additional, the one approach out is thru. Interdimensional Twenty first-century references apart, writer-director Rachael Cain’s debut function Somnium explores the nuanced world of desires — within the sense of psychological imagery throughout slumber and “I wish to be a star”— and their connection to reminiscences and inner battle.
Chloë Levine stars as Gemma, an aspiring actor who strikes from a tiny city in Georgia to Los Angeles, the place she delves into the interior workings of town’s most mysterious experimental sleep clinic. Based by sports activities psychologist Dr. Katherine Shaffer (Gillian White), Somnium claims to “make desires come true” by way of a six-week sleep-pod course of. With little take care of the power’s fame or ethics, a financially determined Gemma takes a graveyard-shift job because the clinic’s “sleep sitter” (a.okay.a. groundskeeper), a place that is apparently been “a little bit of a nightmare” to fill (pun doubtless supposed). However as Gemma enters the cruel Hollywood scene, hungry for auditions and vapid networking alternatives, whereas concurrently grieving a painful hometown breakup, she experiences unnerving visions of a humanoid creature. Because it seems, beneath Somnium’s grand guarantees lie sinister truths that erode the boundaries of actuality and phantasm — to not point out consent — making Gemma’s introduction to LA additional hellish.
What’s weird about Somnium is not its tackle a cryptic, barely futuristic wellness clinic in Hollywood; Somnium’s a reasonably atypical facility, at the least by LA requirements. What’s unusual is Cain’s insistence on mixing themes and genres, even once they do not work. Half creature function and half medical sci-fi movie, Somnium bites off greater than it may possibly chew. However its imaginative and borderline surrealist portrait of a wide-eyed LA transplant who yearns for fulfillment as a budding actor satiates sufficient. With overtones of The Substance and undertones of each Requiem for a Dream and Starry Eyes, Somnium explores the intersection of fame and manifestation with vigor, regardless of its shortcomings.
Sleep Pods, Humanoid Creatures and an Enigmatic Producer
Somnium is obscure about its titular sleep clinic’s expertise, failing to supply one thing as genius as the traditional DNA concept of Jurassic Park (an concept that may be credited to the novel’s creator, Michael Crichton). Usually, every particular person routine is programmed primarily based on a shopper’s hopes and desires, that are then embedded deep into their unconscious minds as they sleep in glossy pods which might be stated to dam mild and sound. Oddly, these identical sleep pods function massive panels of clear glass and are positioned in rooms that glow with color-changing lights and LED neon indicators — a artistic selection that feels contradictory, if not nonsensical.
“After six weeks, it is like, deep down, they consider this stuff to be private truths,” apathetic Somnium worker Noah (Will Peltz) explains. “It is that deep perception that manifests these desires into actuality.” When Gemma questions whether or not the method truly modifications the shopper’s actuality or simply their notion of it, Noah replies, “What is the distinction?” It is a standout second, one which feels topical throughout a time when persons are leaning into the supposed powers of manifestation to change their very own actuality. Although Cain wrote the primary full draft of Somnium between 2011 and 2014 — ultimately successful First Place within the LA Screenplay Competitors — it feels very present: The Guardian, Popsugar UK and Vice have launched items on Gen Z’s obsession with manifestation, and Gen Z-focused digital wellness firm Manifest launched its app of the identical title in 2024.
The movie’s manifestation theme could have been extra highly effective if it wasn’t muddied by a parallel theme of reminiscence, which is honed by way of emotionally wealthy and grounded flashbacks of Gemma’s relationship along with her ex-boyfriend Hunter (Peter Vack). Although these scenes are executed fantastically because of impassioned performances from Levine and Vack, they’re superabundant, and can be extra becoming for a movie like Blue Valentine. If Somnium refined its connection between manifestation and reminiscence, its total imaginative and prescient would shine brighter.
Given the prolonged interval of labor Cain put into the movie, it is laborious to say whether or not Somnium was impressed by Coralie Fargeat’s 2024 feminist body-horror hit The Substance. However its parallels to the Oscar-winning movie are notable. Whereas The Substance feels futuristic in some ways, different components — the decor in Elizabeth Sparkle’s residence, all the idea of a exercise present turning a no one right into a famous person — are remarkably retro. Equally, in Somnium the clinic is legendary for a futuristic expertise that additionally occurs to make use of submitting cupboards, early-2000s digital cameras and boxy computer systems plucked from the late ’90s. Scattered binders, manilla folders and PVC faux-wood paneling additionally make the clinic really feel like a stuffy, outdated dentist’s workplace, and the social gathering outfits really feel very tech-inspired Y2K. (To be honest, that is fashionable in 2025.)
All of it feels intentional and cheeky, as does the inclusion of cartoonishly suave movie and TV producer Brooks (Johnathon Schaech). Brooks’ questionable intentions and air of horny thriller set him aside from The Substance‘s highly effective TV studio exec, performed by a splendidly nauseating Dennis Quaid. However there are different similarities in these over-the-top caricatures of males. Brooks’ goal within the movie is kind of to behave as a bodily illustration of manifesting desires, and it isn’t a stretch to grasp the alien-like being haunting the protagonist as a bodily illustration of her fears and insecurities. Nonetheless, Brooks and the creature each get misplaced in a narrative that is not sure tips on how to make the most of them correctly.
Somnium makes an attempt to cowl quite a bit: the exploration of manifestation and the psyche, the challenges that include dealing with a traumatic previous and the risks of pursuing stardom in a hyper-competitive trade, amongst others. There’s even a possible nod to the California Welfare and Establishments Code’s controversial 5150 holds within the type of Somnium’s emergency Cloud 9 process. With so many concepts splayed out earlier than the viewers, Cain’s debut function grapples with its identification. Regardless, Somnium‘s declaration that individuals all dream of the identical core issues — like love, success, happiness and safety — is notable.
From Yellow Veil Photos, Somnium will hit LA theaters on August 29, 2025. The movie’s NYC theatrical run begins on September 6, 2025.